1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to startup of multiple IDE_HDDs in computer systems, and particularly to a method and control apparatus for controlling startup of multiple IDE_HDDs in a computer system.
2. Related Art
With computer technology advances, today's computer systems need a large memory capacity. Nonvolatile external memory devices with a large storage capacity are used to greatly increase memory capacity of a computer system. Currently, hard disk drives (HDDs) are one of the more popular external memory devices.
An HDD comprises a storage medium, e.g. a hard disk, a read/write head, a spindle motor that rotates the storage medium, and a circuit board. The circuit board includes a connector to connect the HDD to an interface board of a computer system. The Integrated Device Electronics (IDE) interface is a defacto standard interface for connecting HDDs to computer systems. An HDD that conforms to the IDE standard will be referred to as an “IDE_HDD”. The IDE standard allows two HDDs to connect to a single interface board. When two HDDs are connected, one HDD serves as a master HDD while the other serves as a slave HDD.
When only two IDE_HDDs are installed in a computer system, as the system boots up, both IDE_HDDs spin up together. In an initial period, the peak current of each IDE_HDD can be up to 2A. When the system is up and running, the current falls to a lower mean value. The influence of the peak starting current on the power supply is normally not serious when there are only a few IDE_HDDs.
However, in systems needing a larger memory capacity, such as a network system, more IDE_HDDs are needed. Therefore, if eight IDE_HDDs are installed in the system, the peak starting current during boot-up can be up to 16A, since all the IDE_HDDs spin up together. A conventional power supply cannot endure so high a peak current and power consumption, and can easily burn out. A special power supply to supply the needed power increases the cost of the system.
Accordingly, a method and a corresponding control apparatus for controlling startup of a multiple IDE_HDD system are desired to overcome the above problems.